Furniture support



Sept. 11, 1956 THOMAS 2,762,423

FURNITURE SUPPORT Filed Feb. 13, 1953 INVENTOR.

' fllden R Thomas ATTORNEYS United States Patent FURNITURE SUPPORT Alden P. Thomas, near Canton, Ohio Application February 13, 1953, Serial No. 336,719 4 Claims. (Cl. 155188) The invention relates to supports for furniture, and more particularly to means for attachment to heavy chairs, davenports and similar pieces of furniture to permit easy movement of the same upon a floor without the use of casters, swivels or similar devices.

It is an object of the invention to provide means for attachment to the legs or frame of a heavy article of furniture for raising the legs or corners of the frame slightly above the surface of the floor when unoccupied or empty, so that it may be easily moved upon the floor.

Another object is to provide such a device which permits the legs or corners of the frame to come into contact with the floor to establish a stable flat base, when the furniture is occupied or loaded.

A further object is to provide such a device in the form of a slightly convexed plate or pan of resilient material, connected at its corners to the legs, or corners of the frame, of a chair or the like, for normally raising the legs out of contact with the floor when the chair is not loaded, and which is sufficiently flexible so that it will collapse and permit the legs to contact the floor.

A still further object is to provide such a device which may form a part of the original construction of a chair or similar piece of furniture, or which may be easily and readily applied to any conventional form of chair or similar furniture.

Another object of the invention is to provide a coil spring, rubber ball or other resilient element to assist in holding the convex plate or pan in extended position, when the same is made of very flexible material, or where the weight of the chair or other article of furniture may be exceptionally great.

The above objects together with others which will appear from the drawing and following description, or which may be later referred to, may be attained by constructing the improved furniture support in the manner hereinafter described in detail, and illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a chair provided with the improved furniture support which embodies the invention, showing the chair in unloaded position and supported entirely upon the convex plate or pan which holds thelegs of the chair out of contact with the floor;

Fig. 2 a detached, bottom plan view of the pan; and,

Fig. 3 a similar view of a slightly modified shape of plate or pan.

Referring now more particularly to the embodiment of the invention illustrated, in which similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout, a conventional upholstered chair is generally indicated at 10, having the usual frame of wood or the like, the lower portion of which is indicated at 11, and the usual legs 12 connected to the corners of the frame as is customary in furniture of this general character.

It is not customary to provide casters upon the legs of such furniture, and as chairs of this type are frequently quite heavy the legs form impressions in the carpet where plate or 7 or move them from one location to another.

the chair has been located for some time, and also form tracks in a carpet over which the chair is moved.

Furthermore, due to the usual weight of such articles of furniture, considerable efiort is required to turn them, Where casters are used upon such heavy furniture, they not only tend to sink into a carpet and form deeper depressions therein than are caused by the chair legs themselves, but, particularly where used upon thick carpeting, a heavy piece of furniture cannot be easily moved thereon.

The present invention contemplates means for easy movement of heavy chairs and the like upon carpeted fioors, which eliminates such wear upon the carpet and which provides for easier movement of the furniture.

For this purpose a substantially convex plate or pan 13 is provided, formed of any suitable resilient material, such as sheet steel, aluminum, brass, bronze, copper or other suitable sheet metal, pressed Wood, plywood, fiber glass, semi-hard rubber or various plastic materials.

This plate or pan is slightly convexed downwardly, as indicated at 14, and may be of generally rectangular outline, as shown in Fig. 2, the corner portions 15 thereof being adapted for connection to the lower ends of the legs 12, or to the corners of the frame of the chair or similar article.

For the purpose of attaching the corners of the plate 13 to the legs of the chair or other furniture, or to the corners of the frame thereof, apertures 16 are formed in the corners of the plate to receive nails or other fastening means 17.

Theoretically the apertures 16 should be slightly elongated in order to permit flexing of the plate when a load is placed upon the chair, at which time the plate will flatten out and be extended slightly in width and length. However, it should be understood that the curvature of the plate is considerably exaggerated in Fig. l, and it has been found in actual use that the movement of the plate is so slight that usually it is not necessary to elongate these apertures.

The amount of curvature in the plate may vary, it being only necessary that there is suflicient curvature therein to assure that the legs, or corners of the frame of the furniture, be lifted above the surface of the carpet when the chair is not loaded.

The plate is sufiiciently flexible that when the chair is loaded, as by a person sitting thereon, the plate will collapse or flatten slightly, permitting the legs to contact the floor and provide a stable solid fiat base.

With the chair unoccupied or not loaded, as shown in Fig. 1, the plate 13 will assume its normal convex position, raising the legs of the chair out of contact with the floor, the chair being supported solely upon the large, smooth, slightly curved surface of the plate, so that it may be easily and without effort, turned, slid or moved upon the floor, which would otherwise be very difficult, especially upon carpet.

In cases where the plate is very flexible and not sufficiently self supporting, or where the same is attached to an extremely heavy piece of furniture, an additional resilient element such as a spring or rubber ball, or the like, may be provided to hold the plate in extended position.

The coil spring 18 in Fig. 1 is an illustration of such an auxiliary device. The spring is located between the central portion of the plate and a rigid, stationary portion of the frame 12, so as to normally hold the plate extended as shown, when the chair is not loaded. Opposite ends of the spring may be connected to theplate and the frame, if desired, for the purpose of retaining the spring in proper position.

Thus, with a very flexible plate, or in cases where the furniture is extremely heavy, the added tension of the spring or equivalent auxiliary means will assist in holding the plate in extended position when the chair is not loaded, but should be sufliciently flexible to permit the plate to collapse, so that the legs will contact the floor.

In Fig. 3 is shown a slightly modified form of resilient plate or pan 13a, in which the convex under surface of the plate may be formed as shallow pyramid, as indicated at 19. Otherwise this plate is the same as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, being provided with apertures 16a for receiving fastening means such as indicated at 17 in Fig. 1, for attachment to the legs of a chair or other article of furni' ture in the manner above described.

With a plate or pan, such as illustrated and described, attached to the legs, or to the four corners of the frame of a chair or other piece of furniture in the manner disclosed herein, the resilient pan will normally hold the legs of the chair out of contact with the floor, as shown in Fig. 1, when the chair is unoccupied or not loaded.

The chair is thus supported entirely upon the convex bottom surface of the plate or pan, so that it may be easily turned, moved or slid upon a carpeted surface, with very little effort and without marring the carpet.

When a person sits in the chair, or it is otherwise loaded, the added weight will collapse or flatten the plate so that the legs of the chair will contact the floor and provide a stable fiat base as in the conventional chair or the like.

It will be obvious that the plate may be attached to the chair at the factory as a part of the original construction, or may be easily and readily attached to any chair or other article of furniture already in use, without requiring a change in the construction of either the furniture or the plate.

In the foregoing description, certain terms have been used for brevity, clearness and understanding, but no unnecessary limitations are to be implied therefrom beyond the requirements of the prior art, because such words are used for descriptive purposes herein and are intended to be broadly construed.

Moreover, the embodiments of the improved construction illustrated and described herein are by way of example, and the scope of the present invention is not limited to the exact details of construction.

Having now described the invention or discovery, the construction, the operation, and use of preferred embodiments thereof, and the advantageous new and useful results obtained thereby; the new and useful constructions, and reasonable mechanical equivalents thereof obvious to those skilled in the art, are set forth in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A support for an article of furniture having a substantially rectangular frame, said support comprising a downwardly convex plate of resilient material, and means for attaching the corners of the plate to the under sides of the corners of the frame of the article of furniture, so that the central convex surface only of the plate will contact with the floor and normally hold the corners of the frame raised above the floor providing a one-point support upon which the chair may be rotated or slidably moved upon the floor, the plate being adapted to collapse and flatten under additional weight so that the entire undersurface of the plate will contact the floor and the corners of the frame will be supported upon the floor through the corners of the plate.

2. A support for an article of furniture having a substantially rectangular frame, said support comprising a downwardly convex plate of resilient material having elongated angularly disposed apertures in its corners for receiving attaching means for attaching the plate to the under sides of the corners of the frame of the article of furniture, so that the central convex surface only of the plate will contact with the floor and normally hold the corners of the frame raised above the floor providing a one-point support upon which the chair may be rotated or slidably moved upon the floor, the plate being adapted to collapse and flatten under additional weight so that the entire undersurface of the plate will contact the floor and the corners of the frame will be supported upon the floor through the corners of the plate.

3. The combination of a support and an article of furniture having a substantially rectangular frame, said support comprising a downwardly convex plate of resilient material, and means for attaching the corners of the plate to the under sides of the corners of the frame of the article of furniture, a resilient element interposed between the plate and the frame, so that the central convex surface only of the plate will contact with the floor and normally hold the corners of the frame raised above the floor providing a one-point support upon which the chair may be rotated or slidably moved upon the floor, the plate being adapted to collapse and flatten under additional weight so that the entire undersurface of the plate will contact the floor and the corners of the frame will be supported upon the floor through the corners of the plate.

4. The combination of a support and an article of furniture having a substantially rectangular frame, said support comprising a downwardly convex plate of resilient material, and means for attaching the corners of the plate to the under sides of the corners of the'frame of the article of furniture, a coil spring interposed between the plate and the frame, so that the central convex surface only of the plate will contact with the floor and normally hold the corners of the frame raised above the floor providing a one-point'support upon which the chair may be rotated or slidably moved upon the floor, the plate being adapted to collapse and flatten under additional weight so that the entire undersurface of the plate will contact the floor and the corners of the frame will be supported upon the floor through the corners of the plate. 

